Skipping class to see Rihanna
I’ve never been to see a famous musician live before. But a few weeks ago I got to see Rihanna, not in a concert hall but in a lecture theatre. Every year, the Harvard Foundation select a Humanitarian of the year, this year honouring Rihanna for her philanthropic efforts in education and global health in Barbados and around the world.
Although my friends and I had to queue (or ‘stand in line’ as the Americans say it) for over an hour, it was well worth the effort and missed class. We saw a completely different side to a pop star, a figure who wanted to use her fame and success to make others lives better. She encouraged us all to make it our mission to help at least one other person in some meaningful way.
I spent the weekend in a study bootcamp run by Dudley House, the graduate student equivalent of the undergrad houses. My friend Simone and I signed up, and spent 9am-4pm every day over the weekend, drinking far too much of the free coffee, munching on delicious vegan sandwiches and being super productive with our homework and exam prep! If only we could get this much work done every weekend without needing a bootcamp…
One of the highlights of being at Harvard is the number and range of amazing seminars and talks all around campus. I’ve been making an effort to go to more of these talks and earlier this semester, I discovered the Harvard Business School Digital Seminar Series. Last week I went to a wonderful talk by Fernanda Viegas and Marten Wattengberg from Google Brain on ‘Augmenting Human Intelligence through Data Visualisation’. I was amazed not only at how the right visualisation can surface incredible insights but that data can also be a form of art. Their visualisation of wind patterns is now an exhibit at the MOMA in New York. Their demos on hint.fm are beautiful and thought provoking.
My philosophy class this semester forcing me to explore different ways of thinking about life, but also making me explore parts of Harvard that I would have never encountered. Borrowing library books is not something I have done in a very long time, but venturing into the stacks in Widener library I was in awe of the age and extensiveness of the collection.
For spring break next week, I’m heading back to Europe, spending 10 days in Milan and Como to work on a class project. I’ll be continuing to work with the Italian students from Politenico di Milano who were visiting Harvard at the start of the semester. As well as work, we also have an exciting itinerary of activities including hikes, a bike ride around Lake Como, running to Switzerland (the border is only 5 km away), and trips to Milan and Florence.
